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Hackers Invited to Crack Internet Voting

Last updated: September 9, 2015 | 6,968 views

This is some pretty interesting news, rather than trying to cover things up like normal during July the Philippine government will be soliciting hackers to test the security of their Internet voting system.

I think it’s a great initiative from the International Foundation for Electoral System.

Local and foreign computer hackers will be tapped to try and break into an Internet-based voting system that will be pilot tested by the country’s Commission on Elections (Comelec) starting July 10.

The Internet voting system, developed by Spanish firm Scytl Consortium, is worth $452,000. Comelec will pilot test the system from July 10 to 30 for voters in Singapore, where there are 26,853 registered absentee voters.

The results of the polls, which will use survey questions, will be non-binding, which means it will not affect official elections results.

I think it might work out better if some kind of prize or at least incentive was offered for anyone who could successfully compromise the voting system, things usually work out better that way.

Comelec commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. told local reporters they have already asked the help of the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), a Washington-based IFES non-profit organization, in getting professional hackers to test the security of the Internet voting system.

“When Scytl presented the system, everybody was impressed on the security features. It is covered by international patent and it has been declared secured by no less than Switzerland and everyone in the global community should respect that decision,” Tuason told reporters in a conference Tuesday.

Scytl’s computerized voting system is also being used in countries such as the U.S., Switzerland, and Belgium.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the systems ‘impressive security’ stands up against a bunch of random hackers.

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3 Responses to Hackers Invited to Crack Internet Voting

Incentive? Like the recognition of your peers for being the guy who cracked a voting system? Ask Kevin Mitnick how big of a deal peer acclaim is.

If money were offered, that would draw hordes of script kiddies who would serve no purpose other than to overload things. If someone’s worried about the effects of a bunch of people trying to vote at once, that’d be a decent way to do it, though not as easy as submitting it to Slashdot.

The hackers that have a chance will do this without some token reward being promised.

I’m from the Philippines and I’ve never had much faith in the way elections are run here. They’ve tried for years to turn it electronic without ever succeeding.

If they really are doing this and it isn’t some stunt, then this could really be something! I’ve seen the documentary on the secretive Diebold gems which are used in US elections and it seems a more open system would work better.